Bagels: How to?

aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

um, uhoh.

here in Montreal we have own own fabulous bagel store. Open 24 hours a day 365 days a year.The St. Viateur Bagel. All I know is that they boil them in honey water then bake them in a hard wood burning oven.The the fire in the same chamber as the cooking bagels.

Yeah, we can buy good bagels here, but we want to MAKE them. We're crazy.

I had a bad feeling that it involved a wood-fire-stove type thing. Like a pizza oven.

Wish I could help Littlek, but bagels are one of the things I never even thought of making myself.

Hey, you don't need a wood fire oven. Check out this recipe. It looks pretty easy to me and is done in a regular oven.
http://www.lunched.co.uk/Breads/bagels.html

Here's another one. http://home.earthlink.net/~booky1/bagel.recipe.html

One tip, the wood fire thing is pretty much a necessity but when having to do without, buy cheap unglazed terra cotta tiles. Pre-heat in the oven well before baking, this will do wonders to simulate the bagel crust the lovely texture of the wonderful St. Viateur Bagels. When in montreal....

What a great idea Ceili :-)

I just saw a recipe for bagels....maybe in Cook's Illustrated or something? I'll look around. Couldn't have been more than two weeks ago. You boil them then stick them in the oven. I'll be back.

Never made a bagel, but have eaten loads of them! This recipe sounds interesting, and not too difficult:

http://www.recipesource.com/text./baked-goods/bagels/bagels2.txt

Thanks for the recipes. So, no one's made them (except for maybe Margo...?) themselves?

Ceili, the tiles sound like a great idea. But I'd worry about using tiles that aren't made for food purposes. I bet I could find a terracotta/ceramic oven stone somewhere for a lot of $.

Without proper baking tiles for your oven, you really do need a wood-fired oven.

I've tried this twice. A lot of work, a decent amount of mess, and I'm sticking with buying them.

and it's worth the trip to Montreal for the best bagels.
definitely.

Would a pizza stone work? You can get them pretty cheap at Home Goods or through a Pampered Chef dealer. I think I paid $14 for mine through Pampered Chef.

That's an interesting idea. I think that they're not completely interchangeable, but close enough.

If you're already moving away from wood-fired, a little more distance can't be bad.

Pizza stones work really well too. I have several friends who are chefs, from my days in the hotel industry. They are the ones who told me about the terra cotta tiles. I have used both, both are about equal. It's the clay in both that holds the heat. I've used them to make home made pita, breads and pizza. Tres cool.
Ceili

I was going to suggest a pizza stone as well, but it was already mentioned. You wanna borrow mine? :-) They're actually handy to have around the house.

Here you go - no link because it's a "Members Only" site....ssshhhh....don't tell on me.

MASTER RECIPE FOR PLAIN BAGELS

Makes 8 bagels

Because bagel dough is much drier and stiffer than bread dough, it takes longer for the ingredients to cohere during mixing. For this same reason, we recommend that you neither double the recipe nor try to knead the dough by hand. Most good natural foods stores carry barley malt syrup. High-gluten flour might be more difficult to find. You can order both the syrup and the flour from the King Arthur Flour Baker's Catalogue (see Where to Shop).

4 cups high-gluten flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon barley malt syrup or powder
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water (80 degrees)
3 tablespoons cornmeal, for dusting baking sheet

1. Mix flour, salt, and malt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with dough hook. Add yeast and water; mix at lowest speed until dough looks scrappy, like shreds just beginning to come together, about 4 minutes. Increase to speed 2; continue mixing until dough is cohesive, smooth, and stiff, 8 to 10 minutes.

2. Turn dough on to work surface; divide into eight portions, about 4 ounces each. Roll pieces into smooth balls and cover with towel or plastic wrap to rest for 5 minutes.

3. Form dough balls into dough rings, place on cornmeal-dusted baking sheet, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight (12 to 18 hours).

4. About 20 minutes before baking, remove dough rings from refrigerator. Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Fill large soup kettle with 3-inch depth of water; bring to rapid boil. To test the proofing of the dough rings, fill large bowl with cool water. Drop dough ring into bowl; it should float immediately to surface (if not, retest every 5 minutes).

5. Working four at a time, drop dough rings into boiling water, stirring and submerging loops with Chinese skimmer or slotted spoon, until very slightly puffed, 30 to 35 seconds. Remove rings from water; transfer to wire rack, bottom side down, to drain.

6. Transfer boiled rings, rough side down, to parchment paper--lined baking sheet or baking stone. Bake until deep golden brown and crisp, about 14 minutes. Use tongs to transfer to wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

TOPPED BAGELS

Topping ingredients stick to the bagels best when applied to the dough rings just as they come out of the boiling water, while still wet and sticky from boiling.

1/2 cup single topping ingredient of choice, such as raw sesame seeds, poppy or caraway seeds, dehydrated onion or garlic flakes, or sea or kosher salt or:
1/2 cup combination of topping ingredients, including 2 tablespoons each of sesame and poppy seeds and 1 tablespoon each of caraway seeds, sea or kosher salt, dehydrated onion flakes, and dehydrated garlic flakes

Follow Master Recipe for Plain Bagels, dunking bagel into topping ingredient(s) while still wet and sticky.

CINNAMON RAISIN BAGELS

Follow Master Recipe for Plain Bagels, mixing 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, and 1/2 cup raisins into flour, salt, and malt in step 1.

my oh my, that's a lot of work.